Meditation on a Bone

A piece of bone, found at Trondhjem in 1901, with the following runic inscription (about A.D. 1050) cut on it: I loved her as a maiden; I will not trouble Erlend’s detestable wife; better she should be a widow.

Words scored upon a bone,

Scratched in despair or rage —

Nine hundred years have gone;

Now, in another age,

They burn with passion on

A scholar’s tranquil page.

The scholar takes his pen

And turns the bone about,

And writes those words again.

Once more they seethe and shout

And through a human brain

Undying hate rings out.

“I loved her when a maid;

I loathe and love the wife

That warms another’s bed:

Let him beware his life!”

The scholar’s hand is stayed;

His pen becomes a knife

To grave in living bone

The fierce archaic cry.

He sits and reads his own

Dull sum of misery.

A thousand years have flown

Before that ink is dry.

And, in a foreign tongue,

A man, who is not he,

Reads and his heart is wrung

This ancient grief to see,

And thinks: When I am dung,

What bone shall speak for me?

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Poems in English 

• Epigram—The Keekin Glass by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epigram—Thanks for a National Victory by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epigram pinned to Mrs. Riddell’s carriage by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epigram on the same Laird’s Country Seat by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epigram on the said Occasion by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epigram on the Laird of Laggan by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epigram on Rough Roads by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epigram on Politics by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epigram on Parting with a kind Host in the Highlands by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epigram on Mr. James Gracie by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epigram on Miss Fontenelle by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epigram on Jessy Staig’s recovery by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epigram on Francis Grose the Antiquary by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epigram on Dr. Babington’s looks by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epigram on Andrew Turner by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epigram on an Innkeeper (“The Marquis”) by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epigram on a Swearing Coxcomb by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epigram on a Suicide by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epigram on a Country Laird (Cardoness) by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epigram—Kirk and State Excisemen by Robert Burns by Robert Burns

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